Portraits with Studio Lighting

I managed to round up enough flashes to make a make shift portrait studio in my basement. I still haven't got all the bugs worked out. I can only get the flashes to fire about half the time, so I have to have really patient models.

I also made my own soft boxes and wow do they ever look homemade but they work and that is all that matters. I taped some cardboard lined with tinfoil together to make a box that covers my flash to diffuse the light I have them taped to my flashes right now. Just think if I actually had paying costumers they would look at my homemade setup and run away. Luckily my models aren't paying me and they have to sit there patiently while I mess around with my homemade equipment.

This first one is my favorite and what inspired my to make my homemade studio. The challenge this week is "Got Milk?" We are suppose to take a picture of someone with a milk mustache. Kaylee was my very patient model.

Titled:
Straw Verses Milk Mustache



Kaylee was also good enough to sit and pose while I was getting things set up. She was just in her pajamas and didn't have her hair done but I still think this turned out cute.



Here another one I took while I had everything set up. I wanted to enter a portrait for my free study this month this is what I came up with:
Title:
A Sisters Love


Notice how I didn't have Sydnie in any of my studio portraits. She would never have been patient enough for this. These two did such a good job of holding still and doing just what I asked them to do.

I also did some landscape work this week for some challenge entries. We had a challenge called wheels and I found these to subjects to take a picture of:


This is the one I ended up entering. I think the one above is a better quality photograph, but I just loved this one. I passed him when I was going down a rural road looking for broken down tractors and wagons. I just had to flip a U turn and come back around to get a shot of him coming at me. He just smiled at me and looked at me like I was crazy.
Titled:

Road Hog

This one is for an Elements challenge. It had to include all for elements: Water, Earth, Fire and Air.
Titled:

A Wind in the Rushes

This one is for a challenge called Sentinel. You are supposed to take a picture of something then title it sentinel. So that is what I did. I don't know how sentinel this is, its probably going to score low for that reason. Oh well.

Title:

Sentinel


These next two are not challenge entries, just ones I took for fun. I am taking a portrait a week for a side challenge I am in. This was last weeks entry. They are not judged they are just for fun. Sydnie looked so cute in her towel after taking a bath I decided to snap a few shots of her using natural light from the window. I like how they turned out.

This one I saw someone else do and I wanted to see if I could copy it. I think it turned out fun. And its a great one for the upcoming holiday. So Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Back into it

So the holidays sort of threw me. I had a hard time with everything going on to do much with photography. I've had a few weeks to settle back into regular life, and finally I've had some time to catch back up on my photography.

I will start with my non-challenge entries first. These are ones I've taken and like but they don't fit into any of the challenge themes.

This one I took while I was in Idaho over the holiday's. I liked the shot and have been meaning to do something with it. I finally got some time and worked on it, and I really like the results. I have to say it is one of my favorites:


This next set is for an upcoming challenge. I took a trip to the Salt Lake City Temple to get some shots for a challenge called 100 years. For this challenge you must take a picture of something 100 years or older. I chose the Salt Lake City Temple. I have taken a lot of pictures of this temple and I wanted to do something different, so I went at dusk Friday night and shot a few just as the sun went down, and the lights on the temple came on. I think they turned out really nice. The first one is my favorite and the one I will be entering for the challenge.

Title:
The Salt Lake City Temple Dedicated 1853

Another good one:


I loved the sky in the background for this one:

This one was for a challenge called "bits and pieces. I filled a paint drawer we had with different spices. I like the colors in it.

Title:

Kitchen Pantry

This one was for a challenge called "Out of Balance". This one was tricky because as photographers a balanced photo is a good photo, so it was hard to take a photo that disregarded those rules but still looked good. The concept behind this photo was to not only have an unbalanced photo by having a large strong color on the right, and a smaller muted color on the left. I also wanted to show unbalance in the focus made on one girl over the other. The title also shows this, and no she is not, daddy's favorite. I was also using the title to convey an imbalance.

Title:

Daddy's Favorite



This next one was for a challenge entitled "work" I wanted to try and copy the Rosie the Riveter posters from World War II. I think I did a pretty good job but the focus is a bit off. This was one of my most frustrating challenges to date. It was really hard to take a photo of myself I seriously tried almost 200 times. Either the lighting wasn't right, the pose wasn't right or I wasn't even fully in frame. Finally I got this one, like I said the focus was not in the right place (it was on my shirt not on my face) But the pose was good and the lighting was decent so I gave up and just went with it.

Title:

Women at Work "Rosie the Riveter" circa 1943

Here is one of the original posters for comparison:

This final one is one of my favorites. It was for a challenge called Rubber Ducky. It was kind of a silly challenge. Here are the specifics:

In the photo you must include the following: Exactly 1 rubber ducky, a piece of rope or string, one or more vegetables, and something red. This is what I came up with.

Title:

Ducky, having much success during the annual run of Swedish fish.

Odds and Ends

I had a bit of a crazy Christmas and photography sort of took a backseat to everything else. I actually did take a lot of pictures but most of them were just snapshots or I haven't gotten around to editing them. Here are a few miscellaneous shots that I have gotten done.

This month I am working on improving my still life photography skills. I have been taking pictures of various object around the house. This type of photography is harder than it seems.

The one has kind of a complicated setup. First I suspended a large white cutting board between two chairs. I placed my external flash (that I got for Christmas) underneath. Then I laid the object on it, and positioned my tripod above it facing down. When the flash from my camera goes off my external flash senses it and also goes off lighting it from behind. This is what you get kind of cool huh!

I guess this also qualifies for still life. Outdoor still life anyway. This one I took of a crab tree covered in snow and then added a special effect in photoshop to make it look painterly. I decided it sort of looked like a Christmas card so I added the text.

Challenge entries:

I did manage to enter some challenges this month despite the hectic holiday schedule.

This one was for a challenge called inside looking out. I decided it would be fun to give a mouses view of Santa's Christmas Eve cookies:

Title:

Twas the night before Christmas

This was my free study entry

Title:

December Sunrise

This last one is one of my favorites of all time. I don't know what there is about it but I like the mood of it. Me liking it doesn't seem to be helping it in the challenge it is only doing average. I really thought it would do better but sometimes its hard to guess. The challenge was called Contre jour which is a fancy french word meaning toward the light.

Title:

Reflecting on the Dawn of a New Year